STUART — Kim Rody didn't start out to
be an artist.
Born in Florida, she spent 15 years of her life selling
insurance in Texas and painted landscapes — ho-hum — on the
weekends.
Eventually,
however, her love of the ocean and its life took over and she
switched gears, giving up claims and adjustments for brush and
palette.
She calls herself "Fishartista" because her acrylic
paintings — bold, colorful and deeply impressionistic — are
almost all centered around fish.
The Arts Council of Martin County chose a Rody piece —
"Sailfish" — as the image for ArtsFest 2004, taking place
Saturday and Sunday in downtown Stuart.
It's the community's biggest annual art festival, with more
than 155 fine artists from around the country set up around
Memorial Park. The entertainment includes ex-Monkee Peter
Tork, and Jimmy Buffett sideman Peter Mayer.
Now in its 16th year, ArtsFest is the Arts Council's main
fundraiser, and executive director Nancy Turrell hopes to net
the year's budget of $60,000. More than 15,000 people are
expected during the two-day event.
Rody will be there, with her fish art.
"I loved painting in high school, but then I went to
college for business and I kind of dabbled in it through the
years," says the 45-year-old Hialeah native. "Back in the
early '90s, I was taking an art class — and I painted a fish."
Canvas an epiphany
A certified dive master, Rody spent all her free time in
the water — when she wasn't behind her desk at the Dallas
State Farm office.
That first, unplanned aquatic canvas was an epiphany.
"My paintings had taken months and months, and I finished
this fish in a couple hours," she explains. "Boom, it just
fell out of me. But I went back to doing landscapes again —
just worked and worked on them.
"And that year, in my second semester at the community
college, I painted 100 paintings of fish."
She brought her paintings to the Bahamas, one of her
favorite vacation spots, and found she could sell them as fast
as she could create them.
Bahamian art shows were shoulder-to-shoulder with tourists
— often wealthy American homeowners looking for something to
put on their walls.
"I would drive my Explorer from Dallas to Fort Lauderdale,
full to the gills of paintings, and then I'd fly over there.
And I'd fly back with nothing — I would sell everything. And
I'd sell nothing in Dallas.
"So the second or third year I did that show, I was driving
north with an empty Explorer and I said 'Why do I live in
Dallas, Texas?' I stopped in Stuart, a real estate agent
showed me houses and I bought one."
That was four years ago.
"The first 12 months, it was like I was on summer
vacation," Rody laughs. "I didn't do much of anything. I took
a much-needed rest and just kind of poked around with the
painting."
Commissions rolled in
Rody began showing and selling her work in area galleries
and art shows throughout the state. Soon, the commissions
started rolling in.
Last fall, she entered her sailfish piece in the Arts
Council's ArtsFest image contest.
"It was very different, graphically, from what we had been
doing," says Turrell.
"It was important that to keep each ArtsFest as sort of a
new event, visually. I think it helps people to understand
that the show's going to be different every year."
The image — which includes a maritime chart of the waters
around Martin County, complete with a painted-on coffee cup
stain — will be used on posters, fliers, cups, hats, ties and
T-shirts. It will be ubiquitous at this weekend's event.
Rody paints from digital photographs — mostly stuff she
shoots on her dives — and then reaches deep inside for her
uniquely impressionistic colors and compositions.
Her paintings, she says, are quite personal to her — if a
buyer isn't totally happy with the purchase, Rody will buy it
back.
"I'm making a living on my art," she says. "It's better
than selling insurance."
For more information, visit http://www.fishartista.com/.
- bill.deyoung@scripps.com
If you go
•What: ArtsFest 2004
•Where: Memorial Park, Ocean Blvd., downtown Stuart
•When: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sunday
•Admission: $7 daily; $10 for both days in advance
•Entertainment: Saturday: Boss Groove at 1 p.m.;
Peter Mayer at 4 p.m. Sunday: Jumpin' Jive at 1 p.m., Peter
Tork & Shoe Suede Blues at 3 p.m.
•Contact: 772-287-6676
Road closure
East Ocean Boulevard between Flagler and Georgia avenues
will be closed to motor vehicle traffic Friday through Sunday
for ArtsFest 2004.
The roadway will be shut down at 7 p.m. Friday and is
expected to reopen by 9 p.m. Sunday. Motorists are advised to
use Osceola Street or Stypmann Boulevard when traveling in the
area.
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